NEWPORT BEACH — A search of the bedroom of a man accused of killing his former high school classmate turned up a knife with dried blood on it, while an inspection of his phone found images with references to “Nazism” and homophobia, investigators testified on Tuesday.

During a daylong hearing Tuesday at a Newport Beach courthouse, a half dozen Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies testified about their investigation into the death of Blaze Bernstein, who in January was found buried in dirt at the edge of Borrego Park in Lake Forest.

Samuel Lincoln Woodward is facing a murder charge with enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and a hate crime related to the death of Bernstein, who prosecutors allege Woodward killed because Bernstein was gay. Orange County Superior Court Judge Karen L. Robinson at the close of Tuesday’s preliminary hearing found there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Samuel Woodward talks to his attorney Edward Munoz during a court hearing at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, CA on Wednesday, August 22, 2018. Woodward is charged with the murder of his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein in January, 2018. (File Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Testimony during the hearing provided new details about the evidence investigators allege ties Woodward to Bernstein’s death, as well as media found on his phone that prosecutors say illustrate his suspected homophobia and his ties to Atomwaffen Division, an armed fascist organization.

Woodward — clean shaven and wearing a blue blazer and white button up shirt rather than the goatee and jailhouse jumpsuit he wore to a hearing less than a month ago — showed little emotion during the testimony.

An autopsy determined that Bernstein was stabbed 19 times in his neck, while also suffering what appeared to be defensive wounds to his right palm and several fingers.

Investigator Matthew Parrish testified that while carrying out a search warrant at Woodward’s family home, detectives found a knife in a drawer in Woodward’s bedroom that had blood on the tip of the blade and the handle. Detectives also testified to finding what appeared to be blood stains on a sleeping bag found outside Woodward’s home, near the window to his room, and blood stains on the driver’s side visor of his vehicle.

The blood on the knife was matched through DNA to Bernstein, while the blood in the vehicle was matched to both Woodward and Bernstein, according to testimony by Corrie Maggay, a forensic scientist with the Orange County Crime Lab.

Investigator Craig Goldsmith testified that detectives had to work with a New Jersey-based company to gain access to Woodward’s locked iPhone. Among the material detectives discovered on the device were more than 100 “materials” referencing Atomwaffen Division, including an image used for the background wallpaper of the phone, the investigator said.

“There were pictures that have references to Nazism,” Goldsmith said.

Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy during his questioning of the investigators referenced several emails sent by Woodward to himself in which he referenced telling “sodomites that I am bi-curious which makes them want to convert me.” The emails, which were laced with homophobic slurs, outlined efforts to get gay individuals “interested” in Woodward, then either dropping them as friends or contacts or telling them it was a prank.

In one of the emails read to the court by the investigator, Woodward described using a social networking website to send photos of gay people being killed to those he was conversing with.

“They think they are going to be hate-crimed and it scares the s— out of them,” Goldsmith quoted the email as reading.

McGreevy did not specify what role, if any, Woodward’s alleged ties to Atomwaffen is believed to have played in the death of Bernstein, who was Jewish. The hate crime charge relates only to Bernstein’s sexuality.

Woodward and Bernstein were former classmates at the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana. Bernstein was home from college on winter break when he died.

Investigator Dillon Jantzen said that during interviews with detectives, Woodward said he picked up Bernstein from Bernstein’s Lake Forest home around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2, drove him to a shopping center in Foothill Ranch, then to Borrego Park.

Woodward told detectives that at some point when both men were sitting in the parked car, Bernstein kissed Woodward on the lips, Jantzen said. Woodward said he pushed Bernstein back, and claimed Bernstein apologized. At the park, Woodward told investigators, Bernstein walked off to find another unnamed person whose identity he said would be a surprise to Woodward, but did not return, the detective testified.

Under questioning by Munoz, Jantzen acknowledged that investigators had interviewed another classmate of Woodward’s, an openly gay man who said Woodward had communicated throughout high school about his own sexuality, with Woodward at times sending him nude photos of himself. Munoz also noted that Woodward had told detectives that he has Asperger syndrome, a developmental disorder that generally results in someone having difficulty with social interactions.

Munoz told the judge that it is not a crime to write or possess “reprehensible or objectionable” material.

“There are many among us who may have things in our electronic device that are objectionable if not shameful,” the defense attorney said.

Woodward was ordered to return to court for an arraignment on Sept. 17.

Sean Emery is a crime and public safety reporter for the Register who covers state and federal courts and criminal justice issues. He has worked for the Register since 2006, previously covering breaking news, the city of Irvine, the Orange County Great Park, and the city of San Juan Capistrano.